She Wouldn't Be Gone
by GoDale13
Summary: Song-fic set around the middle of Season 6. None of the stuff with Ziva and Rivkin, etc. has happened. Tony has to find Ziva after he upsets her. As he searches, he has to come to terms with everything. TIVA


_Here is a little song fic for you. I've had this written for a while now, but I never got around to posting it online. I was just never too happy with parts of it. So, I hope you like it!_

_It's a song fic based on Blake Shelton's song "She Wouldn't Be Gone." This takes place in kind of the middle of Season 6. Pretend that the end of Season 6 never happened. _

"You are not a normal girl," Tony recalled himself saying last Friday. "You would rather have a bouquet of knives than flowers."

No matter how hard he tried, Tony was sure he would never forget the look Ziva gave him at that time. "You will never understand," she walked out of his apartment and never looked back.

Tony had figured Ziva would ignore his calls the rest of the weekend and show up to work Monday still mad at him, but she never showed.

"Find Ziva before she does anything rash, and settle this now," Gibbs ordered Tony in a manner Tony was sure he learned from the drill sergeants at Camp LeJeune. "You screw this up, and I will personally make you pay."

Tony knew it was worthless to reply; instead he stood there as the elevator returned to the bullpen. Stepping out of the elevator, Tony hid his true feelings, deciding a good ribbing of McGee would make him feel better.

"Hey McGeek, know anything about the ninja chick disappearing?" Tony asked, walking towards McGee's desk.

"I think we should be asking you, **Tony**," McGee said not looking up from his computer.

"And how would I know where she went?" Tony asked, leaning onto McGee's desk, turning serious.

McGee stopped typing and looked up at Tony. "If you don't know what you did, then maybe she was right to leave," McGee said and Tony stared at him shocked.

Down in Abby's lab, Tony did not get much of a welcome. Abby turned to see who walked into her room, but turned back to her computers when she sat it was him. "Are you mad at me, too, Abs?" Tony sighed, standing a few feet away from the forensic scientist.

"Maybe," Abby said in her normal manner. "Do you need something?" she asked.

"Abby, I wasn't the one that forced her to leave," Tony sighed. "I didn't do anything," he insisted.

"That's the problem. You were supposed to do something. She's been waiting for you to do something for a long time now," Abby went off. This stunned Tony; he was not used to Abby being this serious about something. "It's time for you to figure out what you really want, and no one can help you figure that out. Only you can find out where she is. Find her and bring her back!"

Tony flew down the highway, his driving almost worse than Gibbs'. Even at this speed, Tony saw the red wild flower on the side of the road. Stomping on the breaks, Tony pulled off the road and backed up to look at the flower.

"_Look at those flowers," Ziva pointed to the other side of the park where a field full of wild flowers was. "They remind me of a place back in Israel," she told Tony as they walked._

"_I thought Israel was all desert?" Tony asked._

"_Flowers grow in the desert, too, Tony," Ziva replied._

"Figures I'd see the only damn red wild flower blooming in Washington, D.C.," Tony fumed out loud. He had been driving all over the city trying to find Ziva after the whole team had thoroughly chewed him out that morning. "Where the hell are you, Ziva?" Tony sighed, looking out over the horizon. The sun was setting to the west.

_Tony watched Ziva walk towards the window in the bullpen out of the corner of his eyes. He noticed that she did this every time they were stuck in the office working on a case late into the evening. "Don't you have work to do, Zee-vah?" Tony asked, looking up from his computer._

"_Nothing that cannot wait for five minutes," Ziva said, looking out at the sunset. "Have you ever stopped and looked at the world around you?" she asked quietly._

"_What's there to look at?" Tony scoffed. "I find more entertainment inside than I do anywhere else," he said, leaning back in his chair."_

"_I knew you would not understand," Ziva muttered, returning back to her desk._

"You don't show up for one day of work, and everything reminds me of you," Tony exclaimed into the air. But, Tony knew that was not true. Ever since Ziva joined the team, Tony was reminded of her everywhere he went. Even the four months afloat, Tony kept those pictures of Ziva posted not just for the eye candy, but to remember those he left behind. He could easily talk to McGee, Gibbs, and Abby while at sea, but no matter how hard he tried, he could not get a hold of Ziva. Those photos were the only link he had to her.

Taking a deep breath, Tony put the car in gear and drove back onto the road. Reaching down, Tony turned the radio on to help fill the silence.

_Red roadside wild flower,  
if I'd only picked you,  
took you home and set you on the counter,  
oh at least a time or two,  
maybe she'd have thought it through.  
Yellow sunset dippin in the rearview,  
oh how she loved to sit and watch you,  
I could have done that a whole lot more._

If I hadnt been so stubborn,  
been so selfish,  
thought about her more,  
thought about me less.  
Joked to make her happy,  
held her when she cried,  
a little more of that, maybe i..

Wouldnt be drivin like hell,  
flyin like crazy down the highway,  
callin everyone we know,  
stoppin any place she might be,  
goin anywhere she might go.  
Beatin on the dash,  
screamin out her name at the windshield,  
tears soakin up my face.  
if I'd have loved her this much all along,  
maybe, maybe, yeah maybe,  
she wouldn't be gone.

Tony huffed. Whoever was singing this song must have been through what Tony was right now. Maybe this guy knew where Ziva was, Tony thought to himself, chuckling.__

She warned me it was comin,  
said if I didn't change she'd be leavin.  
I just didn't believe  
she'd ever really walk out.  
God I believe her now.  
Called her momma,  
cried like a baby to her best friend,  
if they've seen her they ain't sayin,  
they ain't sayin.  
Now I'm cursin like a fool,  
prayin it ain't too late,  
all i wanna do is fix my mistakes.  
Find her, beg her, for one more try,  
untill then damnit I'll..

Be drivin like hell,  
flyin like crazy down the highway,  
callin everyone we know,  
stoppin any place she might be,  
goin anywhere she might go.  
Beatin on the dash,  
screamin out her name at the windshield,  
tears soakin up my face.  
If I'd have loved her this much all along,  
maybe, maybe, yeah maybe,  
she wouldn't be gone.

I wouldnt be beatin on the dash,  
screamin out her name at the windshield,  
tears soakin up my face.  
if I'd have loved her this much all along,  
maybe, maybe, yeah maybe,  
she wouldn't be gone.

Red roadside wild flower,  
if I'd only picked you,  
took you home and set you on the counter,  
oh at least a time or two,  
maybe she'd have thought it through.

Tony walked up the sidewalk leading to his apartment. After searching till close to eight p.m. Tony decided to go back to his apartment and try again tomorrow. Grabbing a beer and plopping down on his couch, Tony began to rake his brain one more time.

"She didn't leave the country, or they wouldn't be making me look for her. Her car wasn't parked in front of her apartment and she wasn't inside. I looked in every crook and cranny of NCIS. Where could she be? I can't very well march into the Israeli embassy and look there," Tony said to the emptiness of his apartment. "If I was a crazy ninja assassin chick, where would I go to hide from everyone?" Tony thought. Suddenly, the light bulb in Tony's head went off. Grabbing his keys, Tony ran out the door.

Tony knocked hurriedly on the door in front of him. When it opened, Tony did not waste time with pleasantries. "Where is she?" he asked.

"Down in the basement," Gibbs replied, opening the door wider to let Tony in.

"You made me search all day to find her, when she was here all along," Tony hissed angrily.

"Tony, she wasn't here this morning. I came home a few hours ago and she was there," Gibbs explained to the young man. As Tony turned to head downstairs, he felt a sudden slap to the back of his head. "That's for breaking Rule #12. If you hurt her there's more pain to come," Gibbs warned.

Tony nodded his head as he went back towards the stairs, "Ziva, I know you probably hate me right now, but hear me out before you throw a knife at me," Tony said from the doorway.

"I do not want to talk, Tony," Ziva said from the far corner.

"We need to figure this out. Vance won't be as easy on us as Jenny used to be," Tony said, walking down the stairs. "At least tell me what I did wrong before you kill me."

"I already told you I was tired of pretending," Ziva said still hiding in the shadow.

"I'm tired of everyone being mad at me for reasons I don't know," Tony exclaimed. "All I said was that I was surprised your new boyfriend sent you flowers. I never thought you would be the kind of girl to like flowers."

"Just because I am a crazy ninja chick, I am not allowed to be like the bimbos you date? I am a woman. I like those little things. I like when the man I love treats me like I cannot be replaced," Ziva said her voice trailing off. She did not sound like her normal self, Tony thought.

"That still does not explain why you aren't talking to me," Tony said, leaning against the stairway. "It's not my fault you're having trouble in your Mossad-romance world," he shot into the dark.

"You know nothing," Ziva sighed. "Michael is my former partner. He got married to my best friend while I was in Israel. I went back because Rachel had a baby girl and named her after my sister and I. If you just asked me, I would have told you."

Tony stood stunned. All this time he had been picturing Ziva spending that whole vacation in Israel doing the things they only acted out while undercover.

"I have made a life for myself here," Ziva said, standing up. "I cannot do this anymore, Tony. I cannot go to work every day and pretend to not care when you walk about your latest conquest."

"Zee-vah, I haven't had a date since before I was sent afloat," Tony admitted. "Heh, I haven't really dated since Jeanne. I make that stuff up to get a rise out of you and McGoogle," Tony walked closer to where Ziva hid. "You may not know this, but I've never been good at relationships. They scare me, and when I am scared, I tend to revert back to my frat-boy ways. I hide from my problems. I'm tired of hiding."

"I try to help you, but you will not let me," Ziva told him.

"Every time I try to help you, you run into the arms of some stranger," Tony replied.

"Because you mean more to me than a one nightstand. I knew if anything were to happen, I would not be able to forget and act like everything was the same."

"Have you ever stopped and wondered if maybe I never wanted just a one night stand?" Tony asked. "Have you ever thought that maybe I want to spend every chance I have with you. I want to go to sleep every night with you in my arms and wake up with you still there. I want to be the one you run to when everything isn't going right. I want to be able to claim that you are my very own Mossad assassin," Tony said, stepping closer to Ziva with each sentence. "I want to be able to admit to everyone that I am in love with the Mossad Liaison Officer Zee-vah David," he whispered intimately as he closed the space between the two. "You are able to calm me without a word. All you do is stand beside me and I know I can count on you."

"When did this happen between us?" Ziva asked, looking into Tony's eyes.

"I don't know. I've been trying to ignore it since the day we met. Today I saw the only red wild flower in Washington, D.C. and witnessed the most beautiful sunset, and I suddenly wanted you there with me. I realized that there is so much more to life than what movies show."

"I knew one day you would understand," Ziva smiled, reaching up and running her hand along the side of his face. "I am not just an emotionless assassin," she whispered. "I also have a feminine side that likes the little things like flowers or chocolates: to a point!" she added quickly.

"I have something for you," Tony said, reaching behind him and pulling the red wild flower out of his pocket carefully. "Someone once told me a story about a little girl who walked up the side of a mountain and found a valley full of red wild flowers. It was such a beautiful sight that the girl forgot about all her problems. It taught her to be mindful of her surroundings cause there is beauty everywhere," Tony told.

"How did you know?" Ziva asked surprised.

"Hey, what can I say? I know my partner," Tony teased and Ziva laughed quietly. "So, I got a head-slap just now for doing something I haven't yet, and I don't think that's quite fair."

"Oh?" Ziva smirked.

"Boss yelled at me for breaking Rule #12," Tony explained, slipping an arm around Ziva's waist.

"I thought you and McGee were…" Ziva teased and Tony groaned and she slipped her arms around his neck. "I'd rather break it with you," Ziva whispered, leaning up to capture Tony's lips with hers.


End file.
